Raven (Blood Eye) by Giles Kristian

This is the first book in the trilogy of Vikings in England. A fast paised action adventure in the tradition of Bernard Cornwell's historical fiction books. If you enjoy Bernard Cornwell's historical fiction you will enjoy this book. I bought this book because it had great reviews by Bernard Cornwell himself, I'm a big fan of his stories.
One of the most interesting things about reading historical fiction is that later you would want to go and read the actual non fiction history. Having read most of Cornwell's historical fiction novels (except Sharpe stories) I was armed with some knowledge about dark ages and the Viking invasion of England. The only difference with this story is that Kristian tells the story of Norsemen, while Cornwell's story involves the Danes. Norsemen and Danes were both part of the great invasion of England, however as Cornwell describes that the Danes played a bigger part of the Invasion. Kristian's story is of the lesser known Norsemen who invaded England.
I don't want to compare this book too much to Cornwell's books because this book is its own creation and what a good creative story it is. I never read a book that describes battles in such brutality with foul language and yes there is an occasional f?** word.
All the ingredients are there for a good story and still stay true to the setting of 9th century England. This book provides a good map which is easy to understand so you can follow the wolf pack on the adventure across the English land.
The story flows quite well, sometimes a little too fast. It is a story about a boy named Osric apprentice to a mute old carpenter, who witnesses his village burned to the ground by these mysterious Norsemen, they end up sparing his life and taking him and his mute companion prisoner, but a great adventure awaits them across the English land where trouble lurks. Osric becomes very compassionate with the Norsemen and sees their pagan way of life will make him a great warrior.He must choose to pledge his life to the leader of the group Sigurd the Lucky or resist these barbarians. The choice is easy as Osric's past comes to haunt him about his identity. Here begins a great adventure across the stormy seas, great Viking ships and lots of brutal battles. Viking gods will clash against the Christian god, but in 9th century England Vikings are not the only enemies of Anglo-Saxon people.
One small problem I had with this book is that the story moved a bit too fast. I felt that Osric's character need more time to develop. I felt that he accepted his captors without too much resistance at all, but I guess its a small price to pay for such a great story from a new talent. The author has done a lot of research about the Viking mythology and mentions different gods throughout the story so if you are interested in knowing more detail about the gods mentioned in the story turn to the appendix at the beginning of the book for more information, also you will find there names of all the major characters so you know where they belong in the story.
At the moment this book only comes in hard cover, I would recommend to get this one because the cover itself is breathtaking. So if you collect books the hard cover is the way to go.
Good story telling in high caliber from this new author. I'm eagerly awaiting for the second book.
I will give it 4 out of 5 stars.